Why the Boston Red Sox should rename Yawkey Way

Updated February 6, 2014 at 4:36 PM;Posted February 6, 2014 at 1:13 PM

Boston Red Sox Tribute to Jackie Robinson in Springfield

Former Red Sox player Tommy Harper at the podium during the Red Sox Tribute to Jackie Robinson held Jan. 31 at the Van Sickle Middle School in Springfield. Harper faced racism as late in 1985, when he was at spring training with the Red Sox in Florida, but is now a special instructor and one of the current ownership's best ambassadors.
(The Republican staff photo by Mark Murray)

Marking Robinson's Jan. 31 birthday is one of several outreach programs sponsored by the Red Sox, whose management has made their franchise a leader in race relations.

One stone remains unturned. The Red Sox should petition the city of Boston (and if necessary, the Boston Redevelopment Authority) to change the name of the street where they get their mail.

Yawkey Way stands as a big, ugly blotch on the multi-colored complexion of the modern Red Sox. It is named for Tom Yawkey, who was idolized as a patriarch in his day, but treated more harshly by history.

In 1980, Yawkey was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He would have no chance today.

There is no great movement to do this. There are those who feel the street honors not only Tom but Jean Yawkey, who carried on after his 1976 death and has been unstained by her husband's legacy.

Some people feel the Yawkey legacy, which featured three pennants and no World Series titles in 44 years but an admirable commitment to the Jimmy Fund, should not be boiled down to race.

You will even find a handful who say an indictment of the club's racial history should not be a personal indictment of its owner. Robinson didn't buy it.

According to noted author Glenn Stout, Robinson told a Chicago newspaper in 1959 that the color ban was Yawkey's fault. That year, the Red Sox called up Pumpsie Green in a classic case of tokenism, but as late as 1967, Robinson said he was rooting against the Impossible Dream team because of Yawkey's attitudes on race.

There is an inconsistency with the Red Sox bringing the Robinson legacy to students, then going back to offices on a street that honors a man who singularly added to the pain and challenge of Jackie's odyssey.

Robinson tried out for the Red Sox in 1945. The event was a dog-and-pony show designed to placate local politicians and media, and went nowhere.

This team's "curse'' was its owner's stewardship of a whites-only roster. The team's backward racial attitude haunted the Red Sox for years after Yawkey's death - arguably, in fact, until the current owners took over in 2003.

That is Tom Yawkey's legacy. Yawkey Way stands as a reminder of Yawkey's way, a salute to a man who stood on the morally wrong side of 20th century history until being force-fed into the civil rights movement.

Along the way, he cost the Red Sox Robinson, Willie Mays, and a morally defensible stand.

Current Red Sox management's unquestioned dedication to progressive thinking does not require a street-name change for credibility. But if Yawkey Way were proposed today, it would never fly.

Robinson's life was about doing the right thing. As the Red Sox take the high moral road, they would do well to lobby for a name change of the road that passes in front of their park.